Bobbi Jo (aka The Skillet Diva!) began her acting career starring in the Broadway musical, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. "On our day off, I would pick up the phone and tell a few friends I was cookin', and by 8PM, I'd have 30 people over for supper!That small New York apartment would be filled with gumbo and music!" laughs Bobbi Jo. It wasn't long before she was flown from New York City to L.A. to shoot a television pilot, and decided to stay a while. The pilot wasn't picked up, but she quickly began guest-starring on such shows as Seinfeld, Larry Sanders Show and Beverly Hills, 90210.
Then, in 2003, she decided it was time to integrate her love of cooking with her acting and wrote a Southern Kitchen Musical entitled Cookin' With A Right Smart Of Love."In the show, the audience and I bake a blueberry cobbler together, cream corn, gig frogs, grunt worms, and call a turkey. You know, all the usual Southern stuff! It's a hoot! And the audience is the star of the show," says Bobbi Jo. When she work-shopped the production at Pasadena City College, so many people requested her recipes that she decided she'd better write her own cookbook.
And her colorful cookbook was born!
"Bobbi Jo's Southern Sunday Supper Cookbook"
However, before she could even get her musical on it's feet, the culinary director at Williams-Sonoma in Beverly Hills read her cookbook, loved it and asked Bobbi Jo if she would teach a series of Southern cooking classes using the recipes from her book. She agreed and the classes sold-out! Her ability to instruct by interacting with the students in an entertaining fashion quickly made her classes the most popular on the circuit.
"My students lovingly referred to me as their 'Beverly Hillbilly of food!" says Bobbi Jo. Then, this led to her giving several classes at various colleges enitiled "Create Your Own Cookbook Class." As Bobbi Jo put it, "Boy...I tell you what... Life is chockful of changes and turns. So, you just keep changin' vehicles to help improve the ride."
Bobbi Jo could be seen as a regular guest chef on STYLE ! Network's popular show, 'You're Invited. " In addition, Borders Books on La Cienega presented "Bobbi Jo's Holiday Buttermilk Pie and Brownies Book Signing Event" in conjunction with Lodge Cast Iron Company.
While she was cooking and playwriting, Bobbi Jo's road took another turn and she partnered up with Michael B. Sutton and co-wrote several songs on his newly released CD entitled "Hopeless Romantic." Then, Pat Boone heard their music and commissioned them to write several songs for his new CD. The title song of his new CD is their "Hopeless Romantic." She and Michael have continued to write music for feature films, and the soon-to-be-released documentary "Runnin' Down A Dream." In the meantime, Bobbi Jo is working on rewrites before getting her "food musical" up and running. Bobbi Jo says, " If the show is a success, I'll be starting a whole new genre...Food Tunes! Everybody'll be bakin' on Broadway!" In the meantime, she is also finishing up a very funny spoken-word CD entitled, "Part Time American."
